Elon Musk Fulfilled His 100-Day Challenge To Build A Megabattery In Australia

Back in March of this year, Elon Musk entered in some debates with the Australian government over a region of the South Australian outback that was constantly experiencing power outages. The government stated that it was overwhelmed by the situation, but Elon Musk proposed that he would help out by building a Megabattery in the area so as to mitigate those power outages.

The Australian government wasn’t convinced, but to sweeten the deal, Musk proposed a deal in which he would build his megabattery withing 100 days, or it would be free of charge. Now, whether they actually wanted to work with Musk on this, or whether it was a bluff on the government’s part, we will probably never know. But what is for certain here is that because this proposal received so much media attention, the Australian administration had little choice but to accept.

It was either their way, which implied basically that nothing could be done or accept Musk’s proposal, which had the added bonus of both being potentially free if he couldn’t deliver within 100 days, and it would be a greener alternative of electricity generation. Sufficed to say, Musk finished his megabattery project in Australia’s outback within the proposed 100 days. The local authorities will now have to pay the $50 million promised.

What’s more, the lithium-ion Tesla megabattery will ever begin testing ahead of Musk’s proposed 1st of December deadline. This comes as great news for the people living in the area who had to go through many power outages after a severe storm ripped many transmission towers to the ground.

“South Australia is set to have backup power in place this summer through the world’s largest lithium-ion battery, which is set to be energized for the first time in the coming days as it enters a phase of regulatory testing,” State Premier Jay Weatherill said in a statement.

The life-saving Megabattery

What previously stood in the way of renewable sources of energy being more efficient and reliable is the fact that there wasn’t any good place to store that energy after being produced. Both solar and wind power generators, such as solar panels or wind turbines, do not work constantly. Solar panels, for instance, produce electricity only during the day, which means that at night, power needs to be supplemented from somewhere else. But solar can generate more energy during the day than it is required, so, storing it somewhere until it is needed, is a great solution.

This is where Tesla’s megabattery comes in. Even though the project doesn’t produce electricity on it own, it can, nevertheless, store it and then use it in the event that there is another power outage. This huge battery will be connected to a wind farm that is able to generate electricity for thousands of homes at once. The excess energy will be stored in the megabattery, and in the event of an unforeseen circumstance, people can make use of the electricity stored there.